ABIDING IN HIS SECRET PLACE!

Have you wondered “Where is God’s secret place?” We know that when we dwell there we abide under the shelter of the Almighty.  Think of the bliss and security when we stay in His abiding place. I have discovered God’s “secret” place is in His “presence.”  We have to retreat from the calls of the flesh and the world and enter through our spirit into that place of the spirit of His presence.  The door is through our conscious decision to withdraw from carnal thoughts and desires and enter into His life-presence.  We often do it through prayer, but it is possible and even essential to make dwelling in His presence our “way of life.” He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1).

When we face the world and our responsibilities in His abiding presence, our faith and strength is empowered by His divine omnipotence.  If God be for us who can be against us? There is a mantle of peace, strength, and total comfort in His presence. Only sin can remove the mantle of His abiding presence from us. We hold the key to His presence through our seeking His righteousness and our conscious will to abide in Him. He is our way, our life, and our truth. In His presence we literally draw our life force from Him. “For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring” (Acts 17:28).

We can live in a state of awareness of His presence through our mind and spirit. We are not all called to the same height or depth of calling, but we are all called to righteousness and obedience. The apostle Paul was called to a deeper walk  than perhaps Barnabas or others. We are all responsible for answering God’s call. God the father is the one that draws us to Christ. He chooses our destiny and we choose whether to obey. The scripture is very clear about hearing His call and ignoring it for the pleasures of this world. “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

Only sin can separate us from God. We can grieve the Holy Spirit through sinning against God and the Spirit withdraws until there is repentance and forgiveness. We have to choose to live close to God and keep His laws and then nothing can separate us from His love. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).

Perpetual consciousness of God is where total faith and trust in Him will lead us. To the degree you seek Him, you will find Him. Paul the apostle is a prime example of living and moving and having his total being in Christ.  “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13).

I have learned in my long life with Christ that I am totally complete in Him as long as I continually draw my life from Him. “And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:10). “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). As long as I walk beside him everything is supplied to me by His grace and goodness.

Over and over again I hear the spirit within me say, “Come up higher!” Who can climb the mountain of God and appear in His presence?  The scripture says:  “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place?  He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully” (Psalms 24:3-4). Only the blood of Jesus can wash and cleanse us and make us worthy. It is up to us to remain in Him. Through His word and Spirit we can keep clean hands and a pure heart. Do not be deceived by Satan into thinking God overlooks our “known” sins or disobedience.  “But he who did not know, yet committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more” (Luke 12:48). 

We have entered into a time when God is purifying His body.  God is dealing with me about any faults or personality flaws that would block Him from being able to use me.  How can we pray for others to be cleansed and purified if we ourselves pet and cling to known sin? We are useless in God’s kingdom when we stink from bearing spoiled and corrupted fruit. Even as I write this paragraph, I hear the word of the Lord saying, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:11-14).

As I was typing the above lesson, the Lord began to give me the following exhortation:

I hear the Lord saying in my spirit: “HEAR MY CHILDREN! YOU WALK AND TALK AS IF YOU HAVE FOREVER, BUT I SAY UNTO YOU THE TIME IS DRAWING NEAR TO MY COMING.  DARKNESS WILL SOON ENVELOPE THE CHILDREN WALKING IN THE TWILIGHT (THEY HAVE LEFT THEIR FIRST LOVE AND ARE NEITHER HOT OR COLD). SATAN IS COMING IN LIKE A FLOOD UPON THOSE WHOSE LIGHT HAS NEARLY GONE OUT.  MY BELOVED, YOU ARE BEING ROBBED OF YOUR HERITAGE AND REWARDS!  MY SPIRIT IS DEALING WITH MANY OF YOU, YET YOU TURN A DEAF EAR. YOUR LIVES AND MARRIAGES ARE CHAOS BECAUSE OF YOUR SINS. YOU NAME MY NAME BUT PLAY SATAN’S GAMES AND FOLLOW HIS DISTRACTIONS. “Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. And the LORD said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves” (Exodus 32:6-7).

GET SERIOUS ABOUT YOUR OBEDIENCE AND DEDICATION TO ME! YOU ARE EITHER TOTALLY DEDICATED TO MY WAY OF LIFE AND KEEP MY COMMANDS OR YOU ARE LIVING IN THE WORLD CLAIMING TO BE SOMETHING YOU NO LONGER PRACTICE—PUTTTING ON THE IMAGE OF CHRIST. I AM WEARY OF YOUR PRAYING AND BLAMING ME FOR YOUR TROUBLE AND UNANSWERED PRAYERS.  YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO QUESTION MY LOVE FOR YOU! IT IS YOUR OWN SINS THAT ARE DESTROYING YOU.  YOU ARE REAPING WHAT YOU ARE SOWING. “A LITTLE LEAVEN (SIN) WILL LEAVEN THE WHOLE LUMP.”

HAVE YOU ANY IDEA WHAT DESTRUCTION A HOUSEHOLD OF WRONG ATTITUDES CAN PRODUCE?  YOU SAY YOU NEVER SIN, BUT YOUR TONGUE IS CUTTING AND YOUR WORDS CRUEL. THIS ALLOWS IN YOUR MIDST AN EPIDEMIC OF TONGUES SET ON THE FIRES OF HELL. GIVE SATAN AN INCH IN YOUR LIFE AND YOU WILL LOSE THE WHOLE THING. YOU ARE TO LOVE AS I LOVE YOU! PRO 10:12  “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12) “ He who is quick-tempered acts foolishly, and a man of wicked intentions is hated” (Proverbs 4:17). “An angry man stirs up strife, and a furious man abounds in transgression” (Proverbs 29:22). IF YOU DO NOT BRIDLE YOUR TONGUE YOU WILL COME INTO JUDGMENT.

YOU SAY YOUR LIFE HAS LOST ITS MEANING AND YOU FIND NO JOY! YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN WALK AWAY FROM YOUR VOWS AND RESPONSIBILITIES TO ME BECAUSE YOU ARE TIRED AND WEARY!  YOU HAVE TROUBLE, CONFUSION, AND DEFEAT BECAUSE YOU HAVE ALLOWED SIN INTO YOUR THINKING AND DESIRES! YOU ARE ASKING AND EXPECTING FROM ME ANSWERS TO PROBLEMS YOU HAVE CAUSED. DISOBEDIENCE IS A SIN AGAINST THE LORD. “And be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). 

IF ONE PERSON IN A HOUSEHOLD WILL TURN TOTALLY TO ME TO BE REMADE AND CONTROLLED BY MY HOLY SPIRIT, I CAN BEGIN A WORK THROUGH THAT PERSON WHICH WILL SPREAD THROUGH THE ENTIRE FAMILY.  MUCH PRAYER AND FAITH IS REQUIRED TO SAVE A FAMILY AND BRING PEACE AND HARMONY. IF THERE IS NO RIGHTEOUNESS ONLY SIN CAN DWELL AND WORK. LIVES AND HOMES WHO DO NOT DWELL IN THE HOLINESS OF GOD ARE SOON DESTROYED BY SIN AND SATAN. “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry” (Psalms 34:15). GOD WAS WILLING TO SAVE A CITY IF THERE WAS 10 RIGHTEOUS! IT ONLY TAKES 1 RIGHTEOUS TO CLEAN UP A FAMILY OR EFFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS IN A COMMUNITY.

YOU ASK FROM ME ACCORDING TO THE DESIRES OF YOUR FLESH INSTEAD OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF YOUR SOUL AND SPIRIT!!! YOU MUST ABDICATE YOUR “THRONE OF FLESHLY SELF-RULE” AND REPENT AND PRAY; ONLY THEN CAN YOU BE RESTORED TO BLESSING AND REMOVE THE CURSE OF SIN. ONLY THEN CAN I CLEANSE AND PURIFY YOU AND PLANT YOUR FEET ON THE PERFECT PATH I HAVE ORDAINED FOR YOU. ONLY WHEN YOU ARE WILLING TO GIVE UP YOUR LIFE OF “SELF-WILL” FOR “MY RIGHTEOUSNESS,” WILL YOU FIND RIVERS OF LIVING WATER AND ABUNDANCE OF BLESSINGS.

My prayer:  Divine father and my Savior, defeat and destruction are of my making because I have allowed garments tainted with sin.  I can see that my thoughts, words, and actions are destructive and are not building blocks for Your righteousness.  I feel sorry for myself and have been laying blame on others.  Forgive me!  Cleanse me! Purify me!  I have failed You and my loved ones.  Selfishness is at the root.  Open my eyes now to see myself as You see me.  Make me to know the truth and set me free. My life has been of no value to myself or You because I have not sought Your holiness and righteousness.  I want to experience Your presence as my guiding light!  Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.

I totally dedicate myself to You.  I want to experience the abundance of Your life within me.  Perfect me as I wait continually before You. I have been lazy in my dedication to You and I realize only I am to blame.  I must carry my own load of sin and I alone will stand at Your judgment seat.  Your word has told me that I will be judged for my every word and action. The blame for my unrighteousness is upon my head and I ask You to help me change from this moment. Cleanse me so Your spirit will work Your good through me. I love You, increase my love to encompass You and the souls of those around me. Help me to become faithful in all things and help me to bring glory to You and Your kingdom.  Amen.